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Expecting Better

Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom is Wrong and What You Really Need to Know

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A groundbreaking guide to pregnancy: empowers women with the facts and allows them to make their own decisions. FREAKANOMICS meets WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU'RE EXPECTING.

Award-winning Emily Oster debunks myths about pregnancy to empower women while they're expecting.

Pregnant women are often treated as if they were children, given long lists of items to avoid - alcohol, caffeine, sushi - without any real explanation from their doctors about why. They hear frightening and contradictory myths about everything from weight gain to sleeping on your back to bed rest from friends and pregnancy books. In EXPECTING BETTER, Oster shows that the information given to pregnant women is sometimes wrong and almost always oversimplified.

EXPECTING BETTER overturns standard recommendations for alcohol, caffeine, sushi, bed rest and induction, while putting in context the blanket guidelines for fetal testing, weight gain, risks of pregnancy over the age of 35, and nausea, among others.

Oster offers the real-world advice one would never get at the doctor's office. Knowing that the health of your baby is paramount, listeners can know more and worry less. Having the numbers is a tremendous relief - and so is the occasional glass of wine.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2013 Emily Oster (P)2024 Orion Publishing Group Limited
Relationships Sexual & Reproductive Health Pregnancy Sexual Health
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Overall: 4/5
Performance: 3/5
Story: 4/5

I would read this book again on future.

Expecting Better

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I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I particularly like how Emily presents the data but lets you form your own conclusions on how to interpret it. It was also well read and easy to listen to. I’m now recommending it to all of my pregnant friends!

Fantastic book for anxious new mums

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Loved listening to this. Really accessible and so simply explained I feel I finally have some useful facts and figures for my pregnancy, so I can make informed choices.

So informative

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Really helped calm my anxiety by presenting things in a pragmatic, balanced way. I know there is criticism that she doesn’t have a medical background, but the doctors that I’ve seen criticising her (particularly about the risks of consuming a small amount of alcohol) seemed to be playing into exactly the issues she is pointing out - they have their own agenda based on feelings, infantilising women by suggesting they can’t follow evidence and would drink more than a small amount if given the chance, and they ignore the cross cultural evidence. Everything else I’ve seen or read during pregnancy seemed to be promoting an agenda (either over medicalised, or completely hippy and ignoring medical advice), whereas this seemed pitched at normal, educated women who like to make their own mind up after seeing facts not feelings.
My only criticism is that the chapters are numbered rather than named by the subject they cover - this will make going back to check information difficult in the audio book version.

Exactly what I needed

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Who knew the best person for pregnancy advise is an economist. Emily’s outlook is great to assess strict rules pragmatically. Vive la data!

A reassuring read

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